Brianna Accetturo
Presentation outline
Intro: Homelessness Among School Aged Children
  • What if you did not have a place to go home to after school?
Or could not afford food?
What if the streets were the closest thing you could call home?
How would you feel?
  • Well today we are going to talk about how homelessness among children can affect their health, social life, education and the programs that are out there for homeless students.
Background info:
  • 23% of people who are homeless in the United States are under 18 years
  • The largest number of homeless children is represented in Elementary school children
    • o But Many secondary homeless students may not be accountable because they
    • o Hide being homeless
    • o Dropped out of school or
    • o Do not have access support services
Health:
v How does being homeless affect the health of school age children?
v ½ of the population of homeless children experience 2 or more illnesses per month
v Homeless children are more likely to experience certain health problems.
  • they are 4x more likely to experience hospitalized asthma
  • they are 3x more likely to experience respitory infections
  • they are 6x more likely to experience infectious disease
  • they are 3x more likely to experience chronic problems
  • they are 5x more likely to need extended care post birth
  • they are 3x more likely to experience illnesses each month

v Asthma
  • o If a homeless child has Asthma and then becomes sick with another illness that child is at a three times higher risk of being hospitalized
v Lead poisoning
  • o Homeless children are more likely to become diagnosed with lead poisoning
    • § Some Symptoms of lead poisoning are
      • Abdominal pain
      • Constipation
      • Fatigue
      • Anemia
      • Nerve damage
      • Altered brain function
      • § If lead poisoning Effects the brain it could cause
        • Seizures
        • Coma
        • Long exposure can led to kidney, brain, and reproductive organ damage.
        • Death in severe cases

v Nutrition
Homeless children are more likely to have
  • o Unhealthy weight
  • o Poor nutritional habits
    • § They are getting Less fruit, vegetables, breakfast, and consumption of milk
  • o And they are participating in less physical activity
v Homeless students are at high risk for :
  • o Substance abuse
  • o Sexual risk
  • o Self-harm
  • o Delinquency
  • o victimization
v 16% of older homeless children have one or more chronic health problems such as
  • o Cardiac disease
  • o Peripheral vascular disease
  • o Endocrine dysfunction
  • o Neurological disorders
v Homeless students tend to lack access to health care
v You see a lot of Behavioral and Emotional problems such as
  • o Peer disturbances
  • o Anxiety or depression
  • o Lower ratings of psychosocial development
  • o Difficulty in developing peer relationship (also maintaining those relationships) so they have trouble making and keeping friends


Work cited

Coker, T. R., Elliott, M. N., & Kanouse, D. E. (2009). Prevalence, Characteristics, and Associated Health and Health Care of Family Homelessness Among Fifth-Grade Students. American Journal Of Public Health, 99(8), 1446-1452.
This source is about a survey that was done on 5,147 5th graders in three United States cities. The survay analyzed family homelessness, child health status, health care access and use, and emotional, developmental, and behavioral health and child-reported measures of health-related quality of life and exposure to violence. From this source I learned that 23% of homeless people are children under the age of 18 years old. These children have high rates of asthma, emergancy vests and emotional behavioral problems.

Fournier, M. E., Austin, S., Samples, C. L., Goodenow, C. S., Wylie, S. A., & Corliss, H. L. (2009). A Comparison of Weight-Related Behaviors Among High School Students Who Are Homeless and Non-Homeless. The Journal Of School Health, 79(10), 466-473.
This source is about a study in Massachusetts comparing homeless kids to non-homeless kids. When reading this source I learn that homeless children are at high risk for many things. For example, substance abuse, sexual risk, self-harm, delinquency and victimization. During the study the research hypothesized that homeless students are more likely to have unhealthy weight, poor nutrition and less physical activity.

Kurtz, P. (1994, January). Reclaiming Homeless Students. Social Work in Education. pp. 7-8.
This source talks about the effects of being homeless on a child and their family. The source ask numerous question to make you think about how they live their lives on a daily bases. The writer puts thoughts in your head that makes you think what if this was me? This source also talks about how teacher and other professionals in the education field try to help these students.

Walls , C. (11, 2003). The name assigned to the document by the author. this field may also contain sub-titles, series names, and report numbers.providing highly mobile students with an effective education. eric digest. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/recordDetails.jsp?ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED482918&searchtype=keyword&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&_pageLabel=RecordDetails&accno=ED482918&_nfls=false&source=ae
This source is a summary of the information presented in the monograph, "Students on the Move: Reaching and Teaching Highly Mobile Children and Youth". The source talks about how urban areas have high amounts of homeless children than suburban Areas. I also read that the largest amount of homeless student are represented in elementary schools. This digest also stated that it is hard to identify homeless students in high because they have either dropped out, do not have access to support services or they hide being homeless.

Hart-Shegos, E. (1999). Homelessness and its effects on children. (pp. 1-13). Minneapolis, Minnesota: Hart-Shegos and associates, Inc. DOI: www.fhfund.org/_dnld/reports/SupportiveChildren.pdf
I found this source extremely helpful. This source talked about everything you needed to know about homeless children. I used this source to learn about the physical and mental health problems you can find in a homeless child. Some of the information I used was about asthma, lead poisoning, poor nutrition, the lack of health care and much more .